This biographical timeline is intended as an historical and chronological reference to quickly situate the life and work of Jeanne Mance in the 17th century. It includes the main events that marked the career of the founder of the Hôtel-Dieu de Montréal and founder of Montreal.
Daughter of Charles Mance, prosecutor at the bailiwick of Langres, and Catherine Emonnot, Jeanne Mance was baptized in the Church of Saint Pierre and Saint Paul in Langres. She was the second of a family of twelve children, six boys, six girls. A secular single woman, Jeanne did not wish to marry or enter a religious order.
The death of Charles Mance.
The plague strikes Langres.
The death of Catherine Emonnot.
Jeanne Mance becomes a member of the Brotherhood of the Blessed Sacrament in Langres. The Thirty Years’ War is raging in France. Langres is a border town.
Great Plague. The city of Langres and its surroundings mourn over 5,500 victims of the plague. Most of Jeanne’s brothers and sisters are not found in the archives after these years and they are thought to have died.
Visit of Louis XIII to Langres.
Langres. Jeanne Mance’s first cousin, Nicolas Dolebeau, chaplain of the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris, mentioned to her that women had left for New France in 1639. They were Marie Guyart, known as Marie de l’Incarnation, founder of the Ursulines of Quebec and the first three Hospitallers of Saint-Augustin sent by the Duchess of Aiguillon to the Hôtel-Dieu of Quebec. Along with these four nuns was a lay woman: Madeleine de Chauvigny de la Peltrie, benefactress of the Ursulines of Quebec. This fact motivated Jeanne Mance’s decision to also leave for New France. Her spiritual director, a Jesuit from Langres, confirmed her call.
Jeanne leaves Langres for Paris to meet the leaders of the missions in New France. She is 33 years old.
Jeanne is in Paris. She meets the Jesuits Charles Lallemant, procurator of the Canadian mission, and Jean-Baptiste Saint-Jure, who becomes her spiritual director in Paris.
Paris. Death of Claude de Bullion, superintendent of finances under Louis XIII. His wife, Angélique Faure de Bullion, inherits a large fortune and wishes to invest it in charitable works in New France.
Paris. Jeanne met with Madame Angélique Faure, widow of Claude de Bullion, on several occasions through Father Charles Rapine, a Recollet. Madame de Bullion asked Jeanne Mance to go and found a hospital in New France and gave her large sums of money. She wanted to keep her generosity anonymous and designated Father Rapine to be Jeanne Mance’s contact for all correspondence concerning her. Queen Anne of Austria asked to meet Jeanne Mance.
Jeanne went to La Rochelle where she learned that ships were leaving for New France. There she first met Jérôme Le Royer de La Dauversière, founder of the Society of Notre-Dame of Montreal and founder of the congregation of the Daughters Hospitallers of Saint Joseph. He needed a “girl of fairly heroic virtue and fairly manly resolution” to come to Montreal, New France, and take care of “things within”. He hired Jeanne Mance, who had been entrusted with the mission of founding a hospital in New France by Madame De Bullion. Father Saint-Jure confirmed her vocation. She became a member of the Society of Notre-Dame of Montreal and met Paul de Chomedey de Maisonneuve, a soldier who had also been hired by Jérôme Le Royer de La Dauversière to take care of “things without”. Jérôme Le Royer confided to Jeanne Mance his concern about the lack of funding after the first year of settling in Montreal. She suggested that he write up the Montreal plan so that she could send copies to the very wealthy ladies she had met in Paris in the hope of getting them interested in the project and supporting it.
Departure of the ships from La Rochelle towards the Island of Montreal. Jeanne Mance embarks on a ship with 12 men, including Father La Place, a Jesuit. Paul de Chomedey de Maisonneuve embarks on another ship with 25 men.
Jeanne Mance sets foot on the soil of New France at Quebec. She directs the men and operations while waiting for Paul de Chomedey de Maisonneuve who arrives several weeks later. In Quebec, Jeanne Mance meets Madeleine de la Peltrie. They become friends. Madame de la Peltrie wants to leave Quebec and Marie de l’Incarnation to follow Jeanne Mance to Montreal. Paul de Chomedey de Maisonneuve, Jeanne Mance and the first settlers of Montreal, called the Montrealers, spend the winter in Quebec in the house of Monsieur Pierre de Puiseaux in Sillery.
Paris. A meeting of the Society of Notre-Dame of Montreal is held at Notre-Dame de Paris. Thanks to the letters sent by Jeanne Mance to La Rochelle before her departure, nearly 200,000 pounds are collected by generous donors to support the project of founding Montreal.
Montreal. Arrival of Jeanne Mance, Paul de Chomedey de Maisonneuve and the first settlers on the island of Montreal, at the current location of the Pointe-à-Callière, Montréal Archaeology and History Complex. This date is considered to be that of the founding of Montreal. According to Marie Morin, first annalist of the Hôtel-Dieu de Montréal, the first mass was celebrated the following day, Sunday, May 18, 1642.
Sunday. The first mass is celebrated by Father Barthélemy Vimont, Jesuit, in Montreal in the presence of Jeanne Mance, Paul de Chomedey de Maisonneuve, Madeleine de la Peltrie and the first settlers.
Montreal. Montrealers clear land and begin construction of Fort Ville-Marie.
Montreal. Jeanne Mance opens the “little hospital” inside Fort Ville-Marie.
Montreal. The flooding of the St. Lawrence River threatens Fort Ville-Marie. Paul de Chomedey de Maisonneuve vows to carry a cross to the top of Mount Royal if the waters recede.
Montreal. The waters of the river are receding. Maisonneuve carries a cross to the top of Mount Royal.
Montreal. Several Indigenous people receive care from Jeanne Mance, including Pachirini. First Iroquois attacks.
Montreal. Jeanne Mance leaves the “little hospital” of Fort Ville-Marie and enters the Hôtel-Dieu, the construction of which is completed.
Jeanne Mance went to Quebec to receive the news from France. She learned of the death of Father Charles Rapine and could no longer communicate with her benefactress. Jérôme Le Royer de La Dauversière was very ill, on the verge of bankruptcy, and the Society of Notre-Dame of Montreal was about to be dissolved. France was experiencing a period of civil war, called the Fronde, which followed the Thirty Years’ War. Jeanne had no other choice but to go to France to take stock of the situation.
Jeanne Mance made her first trip back to France to reorganize the Society of Notre-Dame of Montreal and find new funding.
Paris. Jeanne Mance explains the difficulties encountered by Montrealers to the associates of the Society of Notre-Dame of Montreal. She met with Madame de Bullion on several occasions.
Montreal. Return of Jeanne. Montrealers welcome her as a liberator.
Montreal. Faced with the growing Iroquois threat, Jeanne must leave the hospital and take refuge at Fort Ville-Marie. The situation is critical. She persuades Paul de Chomedey de Maisonneuve to leave for France and gives him 22,000 livres from the Hôtel-Dieu de Montréal foundation to seek reinforcements. If he does not return with a hundred tradespeople, the Montrealers will have to leave Montreal for good and return to France. She makes this decision unilaterally. In her opinion, it is better to save Montreal, because by saving Montreal, she saves the Hôtel-Dieu. The Hôtel-Dieu would be doomed to disappear if Montreal no longer existed. This decision will be criticized for the rest of her life by François de Laval, the first apostolic vicar in New France.
Quebec. Arrival of Paul de Chomedey de Maisonneuve with a hundred settlers including Marguerite Bourgeoys who joined the Montrealers to found the first school. This is what is called the Great Recruitment of 1653, considered by many historians as the “second founding of Montreal”.
Montreal. Jeanne Mance falls and breaks her right arm.
Jeanne Mance makes her second trip back to France to bring the first three Hospitaller Daughters of Saint Joseph to Montreal to help her with the hospital tasks and to treat her painful injury. Marguerite Bourgeoys accompanies her.
La Rochelle-La Flèche. Suffering, Jeanne Mance has to be transported in a litter. She and Marguerite spend Christmas with the Hospitallers in La Flèche.
Paris. Jeanne attends a meeting of the Society of Notre-Dame of Montreal. She requests that the Hospitaller Daughters of Saint Joseph of La Flèche be sent to support her at the Hôtel-Dieu in Montreal.
Paris. Jeanne’s sick arm, which “she had not used for two years” is miraculously healed. She records her experience in shaky handwriting, immediately after regaining mobility in her arm. This miraculous healing occurred by placing the reliquary of the heart of the late Jean-Jacques Olier on her right arm in the chapel of the Saint Sulpice seminary in Paris.
Paris. Jeanne writes a seven-page attestation on the healing of her arm. These two authentic manuscripts written by the hand of Jeanne Mance are preserved in the archives of the Priests of Saint Sulpice in Paris.
Paris. Jeanne Mance attends a new meeting of the Society of Notre-Dame of Montreal to confirm the arrival of the first Hospitaller Daughters of Saint Joseph from La Flèche in Montreal. Jeanne meets her benefactress, Madame de Bullion, on several occasions. The latter gives her the funds to support the installation of the first Hospitallers in Montreal.
La Rochelle. Jérôme Le Royer de La Dauversière bids farewell to his Hospitaller Daughters of Saint Joseph (Judith Moreau de Brésoles, Catherine Macé and Marie Maillet), to Jeanne Mance and to Marguerite Bourgeoys.
La Rochelle. The ship Saint-André leaves La Rochelle. On board are Jeanne Mance, the first three Hospitallers of Saint Joseph, Marguerite Bourgeoys and a hundred tradespeople and their families who wish to volunteer in Montreal. As these people have no means, Jeanne Mance pays for their passage and food with a promise of reimbursement. For example, see the agreement made with Mathurin Thibodeau on June 5, 1659, signed by Jeanne Mance, preserved in the Departmental Archives of Charente-Maritime. Once at sea, the plague breaks out on board the ship. Several people die and their bodies are thrown overboard, including children. Jeanne Mance is dangerously ill.
Quebec. The Saint-André arrives in Quebec. Jeanne Mance is ill and contagious. She is quarantined in the lower town. The three Hospitallers leave Quebec by rowboat after October 2, the date of their obedience given by Monseigneur de Laval. They set foot on the Island of Montreal on October 20, 1659.
Montreal. Jeanne is back in Montreal. The construction of the three Hospitallers’ lodgings at the Hôtel-Dieu in Montreal has been delayed. Jeanne urges the masons to finish the work.
La Flèche. Death of Jérôme Le Royer de La Dauversière. He dies bankrupt, losing the funds of Madame de Bullion given to him by Jeanne Mance for the installation of the Hospitallers of Saint Joseph in Montreal and those of the Society of Notre-Dame of Montreal. Jeanne Mance would later be accused by Monseigneur de Laval of being a bad manager for having given Jérôme Le Royer the money intended for the installation of the Hospitallers of Saint Joseph in Montreal.
Jeanne Mance makes her third and final return trip to France. The Society of Notre-Dame of Montreal has serious financial problems. New France is in transition.
Paris. Jeanne Mance is present at the meeting of the transfer of the Society of Notre-Dame of Montreal to the Sulpicians. She agrees to the transaction. The Sulpicians buy back the debts of the Society and thus become the owners of the Island of Montreal.
France takes control of New France under the personal government of Louis XIV. Montreal loses its autonomy and independence that it had until then.
Paris. Death of Madame Angélique Faure de Bullion in her mansion on rue Plastrière. On July 3, she was buried in the vault located under the great altar of the Récollets convent in Paris.
Montreal. Jeanne Mance’s return.
Montreal. Jeanne draws up her holographic will. She appoints Monseigneur de Laval as executor.
Montreal. Jeanne adds a first codicil to her will. In the absence of Monseigneur de Laval, she designates Gabriel Souart, a Sulpician, as executor of her will.
François Dollier de Casson, superior of the Sulpicians of New France since 1671, suffered a dangerous fall on the frozen river in Montreal.
While convalescing at the Hôtel-Dieu de Montréal, François Dollier de Casson collected the testimony of Jeanne Mance and wrote the History of Montreal. It is the story of the first 30 years of Montreal. The original is kept at the Mazarine Library in Paris.
Montreal. Jeanne Mance lays one of the five cornerstones of the first Notre-Dame church in Montreal.
Montreal. Jeanne is dangerously ill. She adds a second codicil to her will. The latter is written by Gabriel Souart. Read the will of Jeanne Mance kept at the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (BAnQ).
Montreal. Jeanne Mance died in Montreal at the age of 67. The next day, she was buried in the hospital chapel and her heart was placed under the lamp in the chapel of the Hôtel-Dieu which then served as a parish church.